Gravity Throughout Time

Testing Gravity

In this course, Professor Jens Gundlach (University of Washington) explores gravity, in particular, gravity experiments. In the first mini-lecture, we give an overview of how our understanding of gravity and the Universe has evolved from ancient to modern times, emphasising various experiments, observations and theories that developed along the way. In the second mini-lecture, we introduce the modern theory of gravity, General Relativity. The third mini-lecture explores the big picture of physics, discussing the incompatibility between General Relativity and the Standard Model, and how physicists are searching for a unifying ‘Theory of Everything.’ In the fourth and fifth mini-lectures we turn towards gravity experiments, including those done at the University of Washington. In particular, we discuss experiments that test for Equivalence Principle violation and precisely measure the gravitational constant G.

Gravity Throughout Time

In this first mini-lecture, we give an overview of how our understanding of the Universe and gravity has evolved, focusing in particular on: (i) early models of the Universe, including the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic model and Copernicus’ heliocentric model; (ii) the astronomical findings of Tycho Brahe that led to Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion; (iii) the founders of modern science: Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton; and (iv) gravity’s intrinsic properties, including its dominance in the Universe.